The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

UESEMBLANCES BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN RELIGIONS. 147
mined to issue an order for the demolition of every Buddhist temple in
the country, and only refrained from so doing throngh fear that it would
lead to a revolution. The Shiba temple in Tokio, one of the finest in
Japan, was burned under circumstances that led many persons to accuse
the government of having had a hand in the conflagration, and I know
there are foreigners in Tokio and Yokohama who openly denounce the
authorities for the occurrence.
" As you have observed, the Buddhist temples contain the statue of
Buddha, while the Shinto temples have nothing of the sort. For all
practical purposes, you may compare a Buddhist temple to a Catholic
church, with its statues and pictures of the saints ;
and a Shinto temple to
a Protestant church, with its bare walls, and its altar with no ornament of
consequence. The Buddhis'ts, like the Catholics, burn a great deal of in-
cense in front of their altars and before their statues; but the Shintoists
do not regard the burning of incense as at all necessary to salvation.
Both religions have an excellent code of morals ;
and if all the adherents
of either should do as they are told by their sacred teachers, there would
not be much wickedness in the country. As for tliat matter, there is
enough of moral precept in nearly every religion in the world to live by,
but the trouble is that the whole world will not live as it should. Bud-
dhism is more than five hundred years older than Christianity. The old
forms of Shintoism existed before Buddhism was brought to Japan ;
the modern is so much changed from the old that it is virtually, as I told
you, a reformation of Buddhism. At all events, that was the form which
it assumed at the time the Shogoon's government was overthrown.
" You have only to see the many shrines and temples in all parts of
the country to know how thoroughly religious the whole population is, es-
pecially when you observe the crowds of devout worshippers that go to
the temples daily. Every village, however small and poor, has its temple ;
and wherever you go, you see little shrines by the roadside with steps lead-
ing up to them. They are invariably in the most picturesque spots, and
always in a situation that has a view as commanding as possible. You
saw them near the railway as we came here from Yokohama, and you can
hardly go a mile on a Japanese road without seeing one of them. The
Japanese have remembered their love for the picturesque in arranging
their temples and shrines, and thus have made them attractive to the great
mass of the people.
" Since the opening of Japan to foreigners, the missionaries have de-
voted much attention to the country as a field of labor. Compared with
the result of missionary labors in India, the cause has prospered, and a
but